212 CANADIAN LOCAL HISTORY, 



The saw-logs are conveyed to this mill in a very remarkable manner. 

 They are cut upon the banks of the River "Welland [or Chippewa. 2nd 

 Edition], and floated down to its mouth, where there is a reservoir 

 made to contain them, by a chain of log-pens. From hence it is very 

 dangerous to go in a boat to the mills on account of the great rapid, 

 and the probability of being sucked into the vast vortex of the Falls. 

 To avoid this, small poles have been fixed together from the reservoir 

 to the mill (upwards of a mile), and floating about the distance of 

 eighteen or twenty feet from the shore; they are kept off" the shore 

 in their places by poles projecting from the shore ; and thus the 

 chain of poles, rising and falling with the waters, and always floating 

 on the surface, make a kind of canal, into which the logs ai-e launched 

 one by one, and so carried from the reservoir to the mill. 



Below the Falls is a place called the Whirlpool, where the river 

 has apparently made an eff'ort to break its way through to the west- 

 ward; but not having power to do so, has left an elbow (where there 

 is a constant and great eddy), and broken through the more penetrable 

 strata to the northward. 



Fort Erie is situated at the eastern extremity of Lake Erie, where 

 its waters narrow into the Niagara River. There is a small, old 

 fort here, with a good new block-house. A company of soldiers are 

 quartered here, as there are also at Fort Welland, for the purposes of 

 transporting the public stores. Fort Erie has frequently sufiered 

 from the westerly gales, which occasion the lake sometimes to rise 

 very considerably. The new fort is projected on a small height in 

 the rear of the present garrison. In passing along the northern 

 shore of Lake Erie, westward from Fort Erie, nothing vexy material 

 occurs until you are imperceptibly intercepted by Long Point Bay; 

 the principal feature within this distance is the Point Abino, a 

 shelter for ■ vessels, which find here a good anchorage. The Grand 

 River discharges itself into the lake about twenty-four miles beyond 

 Point Abino; its entrance being covered by a rocky island at some 

 distance from the shore. Between Point Abino and the Grand 

 River is a sugar-loaf hill, which afibrds a good land-mark for vessels. 



The townships in this quarter are settling very fast, and several 

 mills are already erected. 



In Woodhouse and Charlotteville, which lie immediately within 

 the long promontory, there is a great space of country, thinly tim- 

 bered and without underwood, which greatly facilitates cultivation. 



